God Will Heal The Broken Hearted

Psalm 147

Our psalm today, to start out the New Year, is fittingly one of praise and worship to the Lord.  The unknown author of this psalm calls upon us to praise God both for what He has done for us, individually, and for what He does throughout nature.

Many of us, at one time or another, have been broken hearted over something. Perhaps this past year you have suffered a blow that left you devastated. Maybe a loved one, one very dear to you, has passed away.  Maybe a spouse or a good friend, one you felt you could trust, has betrayed you, turned their back on you, and walked out.  These can leave you crushed, your heart broken in pieces. Being heartbroken can easily hurt just as much as any physical ailment, and can quench our spirit, leaving us in depression and despair.  Our psalmist knew about this, and gives us a word of hope in verse 3. Here he tells us that God will heal the broken hearted, and will bind up or bandage their wounds.  This statement is echoed by the Prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 61:1.  Jesus also quoted Isaiah’s verse in reference to Himself in Luke 4:18.  Jesus heals what is broken in our lives, and forgives our sins.  That is what He came for (Mark 2:17). Let us come to Him at the start of this new year with our broken hearts, our shattered dreams, and our wounded spirits, and let Him bandage them up and heal them.

In this new year would we like to please the Lord even more than we have in the past?  We have a clue to what really pleases Him in verse 11.  The Lord says here that He takes pleasure in those who fear Him. This is not a fear like the fear we may have walking to our car through a dark parking garage.  The type of fear mentioned in the Bible as “the fear of the Lord” is a reverential awe of God.  It is giving Him divine respect, obeying and submitting to Him in love and worship.  We should have reverence for the Lord, and also patiently wait for Him, trusting in Him.  This fear will produce a strong faith that will carry us through our trials.  We can have all of the strength and ability in the world, but without God in our life, it is all worthless and meaningless (vs. 10).  God desires our reverence and trust. When we give Him that, we can put all of our God-given skills to His use.

Even though God has created everything on earth and also all of the universe, His greatest joy is when we give Him genuine worship and trust.  Scattered throughout the psalm we read many verses of God’s work in nature, and how He cares for everything He has made.  Let’s finish by looking at some of these verses.  Nobody can count all of the stars in the universe.  Scientists estimate that there are over 200 billion stars in the Milky Way alone, and there are billions of galaxies in the universe, each with a large number of stars.  Yet, in verse 4 we read that God knows the number of stars, and has given them each their own name!

God designs the clouds in the sky (vs. 8), and spreads them across the heavens. He makes the rain which waters the earth to bring forth all of the types of plants for us to enjoy.  Verse 9 shows that God cares about each and every one of His creations, as He provides each one with the food that they need.  If God cares about each humble animal, and makes sure that they have enough to eat, shouldn’t we know that He will take care of our needs?

To conclude, our psalmist gave some verses very appropriate for a very cold winter day (vs. 16-17).  Though I am not a fan of winter or the cold, it is the Lord God who sends the snow, frost, and hailstones.  I live in a city that gets very cold every winter, and these last few days I have felt like I might as well be living in the North Pole or in Antarctica!  Just like verse 17 says, “Who can stand before His cold?”

For all of His creation, we have so many reasons to praise and worship our Lord.  We can enter this new year with faith, hope and trust that He will walk through each day with us.